If you’ve spoken to anyone in the Scotland community lately, you’ve likely heard them speak of one special holiday: Juneteenth, or as some proudly call it, “Freedom Day,” which commemorates the day in 1865 when Union troops freed the enslaved people in Galveston, Texas.

Scotland — the one in the D.C. suburbs, not the United Kingdom — is one of the first pieces of land that Black people purchased in Montgomery County.

The neighborhood of 100 modest townhomes is nestled off Seven Locks Road in Potomac, and it’s an outlier in an area where home prices surpass $900,000 and most residents are white, per the U.S. Census.

It’s also home to a historic place of worship, the Scotland AME Zion Church, which has been closed for more than four years after a devastating flood. And in the neighborhood’s annual Juneteenth celebration — which will be bigger than ever this year — the Scotland community hopes to bring about the church’s salvation.

That community’s residents are fiercely proud of where they live.

William Dove purchased the 36 acres that the community sits on for $210 in 1880. Formerly enslaved people formed a community there first called Snakes Den but eventually renamed Scotland — inspired by a “New Scotland” sign belonging to a neighboring property, according to legend.

LaTisha Gasaway-Paul, a descendant of Dove, calls herself a “warrior for Scotland. I like to make sure that Scotland history doesn’t get swept underneath the carpet,” she says.